


Growing Up Hanyou

by AvannaK



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Edo Period, Gen, Growing Up, Implied Vampires, Japan, Rivals, Swearing, Taisho Period, but still the past, mild use of social lubricant, rivals to friends, youkai of the future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-12 13:48:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19947166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvannaK/pseuds/AvannaK
Summary: There are 500 years between the Sengoku and the Modern era, and as a rare Hanyou surviving into adulthood, there's a lot for Inuyasha to experience. Keeping up is giving Kouga a headache.





	1. Better Times

**Author's Note:**

> Now "multichapter". Started for a week-challenge prompt. Using as a platform to share headcanons I've held secret for years.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Sengoku has seasoned into the Edo period, and a reluctant hanyou finds himself in a new era of an old home. Inuyasha didn't return to Japan to heal, but a stubborn familiar face may just make that happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was just a little one-shot done for InuKog week on tumblr. I thought I'd stretch ye olde writing fingers a bit and pump out a dribbly. This thing is /rife/ with old headcanons I used to have about post-Yasha happenings.
> 
> Prompt: Day 2 Healing/Friendship

Inuyasha wrinkled his nose.

He found himself doing that often since his return to Japan. The land had changed quite a bit in the last couple centuries, and for the better were anyone to ask him. Granted, he hadn’t been around long enough to witness the uglier side of things—and he knew they existed, they always existed—but ever since this Tokugawa Shogunate came into being there was a whole lot less war and brutality and a bit more order. Sure, the blatant classism was still there… As were demons. Though far, _far_ fewer demons than his memory served him.

A concerning misrememberece if he had any intention of staying.

Despite Japan’s surface change, most things hadn’t where it counted. Forests still buried their roots deep into the ground and no human structures had surpassed the height of trees. The air flowed through his lungs unimpeded by airborne soils. The future he once bore witness too hadn’t yet come.

It was the smells that made Inuyasha uneasy. Not the new ones, but the familiar. Scents were inescapable to a nose such as his and often came with an association—sometimes a full memory. Not always welcome ones.

Most were subtle. An underlying whiff of honeysuckle from a nearby meadow had him back in Kaede’s hut, sore and bandaged, drying blood already pinching his skin in an irritating itch. Heavy pine in the air had him safe and far above the ground; bark digging into his back in the closest thing he knew to a hug since his mother passed. Clay from a potter’s market wares had his heart clenching and his skin cold and his mind hyper to fix on _any other thought_. The rot from a half-drowned branch had him small, and human, and scared, hiding in a dilapidated hut from a passing demon, hoping the maggots crawling through the spoiled wreckage would cover his own fearful odor.

They hurt, these memories, these sensations. It was a different time for him. He was angrier then, and younger, but _learning_ to be happy.

He wasn’t though. He hadn’t been happy in Japan. He had moments of happiness, to be sure, but the overall experience of his birth country carried a weight he’d never shake. One of overwhelming unfairness, frustration, and isolation. Of trauma and loss and disappointment.

That’s why the cacophony of gentle smells troubled him. They weren’t offensive, per se, and certainly harmless on their own. They were simply draining to Inuyasha. And he couldn’t escape them. He couldn’t prepare himself against them.

Other scents, on the other hand, were...less subtle. Wind and smoke and sweat and fur, all lumped together, all with the welcome shock of a stubbed toe.

The hair on Inuyasha’s neck rose even before the deep, oily voice broke his peace.

“Well, well. I thought I smelled wet dog.”

Inuyasha flicked an ear in the direction of the voice. He opened his mouth to respond and then, against everything he was sure Kouga had come to expect from him, closed it.

He chose, instead, to do something he usually reserved for human nights spent in the right company. Or, in this case, when he might need a little social lubrication.

Reaching into a side pouch, he pulled out a flask and uncorked it. The fiery scent had surely reached Kouga’s sensitive nose by the time Inuyasha took his swig, eyes closed against the cool burn he’d come to associate with one of the few drinks that affected his demonic metabolism.

He didn’t bother recapping the thing. It stayed in his hand, rested against his thigh.

“Still alive, eh?” Inuyasha opted for after what he could only imagine was an annoyingly long pause.

Kouga snorted and Inuyasha could hear him take a step closer.

“So what finally dragged you back, muttface?”

Inuyasha opened his eyes and cast a look over his shoulder. He stopped short for a moment noticing the vastly different state of dress Kouga wore. The fur ensemble had gone. A long, blue hakama replaced Kouga’s signature skirt and wraps, concealing once proudly displayed muscular legs. A brown montsuki crested with wolf insignia draped across his shoulders and ran the length of his back, effectively hiding his tail. If it weren’t for the ears, Kouga could have passed for a human. Perhaps that was the point.

Inuyasha shouldn’t have been surprised: they all had to change with the times. He couldn’t imagine why Kouga hadn’t dropped a comment on his own western styled clothing.

Or his hair.

“Calm down, I’m not staying,” Inuyasha muttered, turning away. He’d had such a nice night too. Relaxing. No demons. No altercations. Just a day more and he’d reach his destination.

He didn’t feel like picking a fight today. He didn’t know if he _could_ fight with the mounting oppressive atmosphere this land molded into him.

Kouga laughed and, to Inuyasha’s immense discomfort and irritation, settled down next to him.

“You aren’t _running_ from someone, are you, mutt? I can’t imagine what else would scare your sorry ass back here.”

The setting sun offset the most conspiratorial gleam to the blue in Kouga’s eyes as he leaned on the arm closest to Inuyasha.

Inuyasha scoffed. “Running? The only dumbass here who runs from _anything_ has been you.”

It was easy—comforting almost—to fall back into insults. Inuyasha had half a mind to ask why Kouga hadn’t run from Japan itself yet, seeing how the demonic presence had diminished by an...unsettling amount. He didn’t, because it risked opening an avenue of conversation he wasn’t prepared for.

Kouga didn’t rise to the bait. He shrugged, kept grinning, and Inuyasha brought the flask to his mouth again, anticipating a long, annoying night.

“If I had a vampire coven out for my blood, I’d run too.”

The drink sprayed from Inuyasha’s mouth. He sputtered and coughed, whipping around to glare at Kouga, who suddenly looked less like a nobleman and more like a snickering child.

“What—no—how’d you hear about that!?”

“Shippo.”

Inuyasha’s lip curled. “That little shit.”

It was bad enough Shippo _knew_. Why the fox told Kouga of all demons, Inuyasha didn’t know.

Well, he did. _He_ had left. The academy wasn’t enough for the adolescent fox kit and Kouga was (then) one of the few male, if distant, presences he could look up to. Inuyasha knew the wolf and fox were close, but only through long correspondence.

To experience the fruit of that friendship was, frankly, horrifying. He didn’t want to _think_ about what else Kouga knew.

“I’m not writing to him any more,” he announce aloud, sounding mulish to his own flattened ears.

Kouga rolled his eyes. Inuyasha noticed he had changed physically as well. Just in little ways… a longer face, sharper eyes…

“You’re too soft to cut him out of your life,” Kouga said.

Inuyasha responded with silence. It would have been foolish to deny it. He wasn’t so thinned skinned to react to such a statement.

“…Not like you did with that vampire.”

Inuyasha felt his face heat, which made the situation that much worse. “How the fuck—I didn’t tell that asshole _that_ much!”

He was torn between grilling Kouga to find out _what_ Shippo knew, and _how much_ he knew, and _how_ he knew it, and _who_ else he told… and killing Kouga on the spot before hunting down every other loose end.

He could—and should—probably commit both. In that order.

Still chuckling at Inuyasha’s strangled expression, Kouga gleefully explained:

“Shippo has a vested interest in the gossip surrounding your love life, puppy. He actually puts some effort into finding out what’s going on with you. I’d say you’re better known for your disastrous breakups than defeating Naraku at this point.”

“Get fucked,” Inuyasha snarled. And that didn’t explain shit. What sort of creepy information network did the fox manage?

“I’m serious. It’s usually the second thing anyone asks him after ‘how are you?’. It’s ‘what’s Inuyasha done now?’. It’s kind of legend.”

Inuyasha sighed and with it went the initial unpleasantness that came with the shocking turn of the conversation. It couldn’t be helped. It’s not like there was anyone left on this hell of an island whose opinion he gave a damn about.

“Sounds like you guys had a pretty boring couple of centuries if that’s the sort of shit you entertain yourselves with.”

Inuyasha took another swig, hoping to burn out the final flush in his cheeks. He jerked the flask away from a clawed grab not a second too soon.

“Gimme a drink, dogshit.”

Inuyasha swallowed too quickly and had to choke down a cough. "Are you out of your damn mind?” he asked roughly. “Do you know how far I’d have to travel to get more of this? They don’t make this shit here!"

“I’ll pay you. I’m fabulously wealthy these days. By human standards, that is.”

“I don’t want your damn money, I want you to leave me alone!”

“I want to hear the details from you. I know Shippo embellishes—”

“Fuck off! Don’t you have anything better to do?”

“With you back? No.”

"Really? Absolutely nothing better to do--"

"Really!"

"--than try and take the _one thing_ keeping me sane here? Nothing?"

“Honestly, you remind me of better times.”

That stopped Inuyasha short. Once again he found himself opening his mouth only to close it.

For the past couple days since he landed back on Japan’s shores, Inuyasha could not say anything had reminded him of better times. Yet, here sat a childhood rival, looking him dead in the eye, within arm’s reach, telling him that he, a half-breed upstart, reminded the prince of a demon tribe of Better Times.

Yes, Japan had memories that extended far beyond the shikon jewel days for Inuyasha—traumatic, oppressive memories. But the memories involving each other hinged on one crucial sharing point.

And it wasn’t a bad one.

Inuyasha swallowed the first sarcastic quip. Then the second. And, without a single word, he held out the flask to his companion. Inuyasha stared straight ahead, not needing to imagine the look of surprise on Kouga’s face, even as the hard leather slipped from his fingers, and not bothering to fight the smirk tugging his lips as he heard Kouga chug from the container.

A scream echoed across the valley, very quickly accompanied by raucous laughter.

Inuyasha couldn’t remember a time when he had laughed so openly on Japan soil before. He decided to file it away as a new memory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a totally unedited hack job. I apologize for that.


	2. End of an Era

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Japan holds such a tumultuous place in Inuyasha's heart that Kouga is always interested any reason the hanyou returns.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takes place 1918, circa a rather particular earthquake.
> 
> Prompt Day 5: Angst/Death  
> (Yeah, I took some interpretation liberties)

Inuyasha wiped his greasy fingers on the jacket he had draped across his leg. The edge of the building he sat on wasn’t too high as to alarm anyone who happened to glance up; with a snack of pork cutlets in hand, his heels bouncing against brick as he let his legs swing, and suspenders off shoulder, looped at his hips, he looked the part of any day-to-day working taking a lunch break.

He chewed slowly, the construction below holding his entire attention, his heart somehow high and heavy all at once—up in his throat and weighty. The fried food was delicious, bought from one of the new vendors popping up on street corners as Tokyo exploded into a metropolis. He could hardly taste it. Every bite sat leaden in his stomach.

“You know, when you’re in the country could you _try_ letting me know every now and then.”

Inuyasha popped the rest of the cutlet in his mouth, gestured to the ostentatious building five blocks from the very rooftop on which he sat, and said through a mouthful of food, “Why the fuck did you think I chose to sit _here_?”

In plain view of Kouga’s top floor office.

“To admire the architecture.”

“Admire a goddamn eyesore?"

"It's cutting edge."

"It's obnoxious.”

“Jealousy doesn’t suit you, puppy. Much like that common-man’s garb. Can’t you at least lose the western look when you come here?”

The clip of _geta_ on a rough surface had Inuyasha turning his head just enough to catch a glimpse of a long, navy _tonbi_ with a fur-lined collar over whatever expensive ensemble lay beneath. Inuyasha eyed the outfit in distaste as he scoffed.

“—sound like my brother. Better than looking like a ponce…”

“So, what’s the occasion this time?” Kouga asked, easily ignoring the grumbling. He leaned over Inuyasha, curtain of silken black hair swinging cross the younger man’s head, and reached into his lap to pluck a cutlet. “This is the third time this year I’ve seen you back east. Something’s happening. Wedding? Funeral?”

Inuyasha let off a low growl but allowed the theft. He picked up his next cutlet and gestured to the knot of humans milling around below, shifting gravel in wheelbarrows, sawing planks of wood, hammering into place the beginnings of a structure Inuyasha had been ( _would become?)_ all too familiar with…

Even with his human ears, Inuyasha could hear Kouga’s chewing slow before giving a rough swallow.

“Woah, wait…what are they doing? They can’t—”

“It’s fine.” Inuyasha cut him off, and he was sure the melancholy in his voice disturbed Kouga more than the construction swirling around the Bone eater’s well. “It’s supposed to happen.”

In the last thirty years since Edo had been renamed Tokyo, Inuyasha had kept a closer eye on the land, retaining one foot in Japan as he hadn’t done in centuries.

He’d been waiting for this—perhaps all these centuries. He’d been both dreading and yearning for it…

In a flurry of expensive cloth, Kouga settled down next to him on the roof’s ledge.

“It’s so weird you know this...” the wolf muttered. The man fiddled with the bulbous gemmed ring on his middle finger; should it have slipped off, the ears and tail and every other supernatural feature would have been exposed to the thousands of humans below.

Inuyasha continued to eat, shrugging one shoulder in a show of indifference.

“You don’t seem excited,” Kouga observed.

Inuyasha flicked crumbs off his fingers with blunt nails and said, honestly, “I don’t know what to feel.”

More specifically, he didn’t know _how_ he was supposed to feel. Excited just... well, it didn’t seem appropriate.

The foundation for the shrine had been set weeks ago. He could point out where the family house would go, though he didn’t know if it would be built along with the shrine or if it would come later. He knew where the shed would later appear—the one that where the Noh Mask would eventually be stored... 

And the Goshinboku stood tall, as it always had, buds tight against every outstretched branch as warmer weather stoked their bloom. Inuyasha hadn’t touched the tree in centuries. Hadn’t cast an eye on that grove where he had been sealed. Not since he first left Japan centuries. He didn’t know if he could bring himself to…

He could feel Kouga’s stare. He met the wolf’s eyes and did his best to look annoyed. Seeing the oddly human gaze soften back at him, Inuyasha knew he failed.

Sighing, he cast his attention down to the two last cutlets in his lap, debating on whether to offer them to the wolf or throw them down at the pedestrians for a laugh.

A tanned hand gripped his shoulder, demonic strength thrumming beneath the concealment spell.

“Hey,” Kouga said, “this is a good thing.”

Inuyasha let out a hoarse chuckle. “You think?”

“Why not? We’ve known this was coming.” Kouga gestured with his free hand just as Inuyasha had minutes before. “Look around. It’s the start of a new era.”

Inuyasha nodded—hardly taking in the multi-floored apartments and paved streets and ever churning fashion that had struck Japan just as it had the rest of the developed world—but his frown deepened.

_Then why did it feel like the end of one?_

He knew he said it out loud—whispered it, perhaps—when Kouga’s grip tightened for a breath.

Well, if he were to be vulnerable before anybody, he was glad it could be Kouga, who had long since wormed past his defenses.

It couldn’t be helped. This why Inuyasha spent more and more time watching the shrine being built, feeling anxious one day and sick to his stomach the next. The clouded air, Kouga’s hand on his shoulder in a show of comfort—Inuyasha realized he had been _mourning,_ of all things.

It felt like the end was approaching with every bone set in the impending structure. That _she_ would be born again ( _at last?)_ and then leave and that would be it. There would be nothing left to wait for. The closing of a book he was sure he hadn’t read correctly, that he might never understand.

The pair spent another silent moment watching the oblivious human crew work, each with their own thoughts, their own concerns, and anticipation hammering in their chest along with the tools below.

Together, they watched the beginning of the Higurashi shrine.

The beginning of the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another "youkai of the future" bit... which includes. Ya'll have NO IDEA how much I want to draw their outfits. Inuyasha in suspenders! Like, Arthur Morgan style clothing while Kouga's a "classy" 1900s japanese business man.


End file.
